Abstract

The utility of military force in general, and that of military forces in particular, has been the subject of much debate since the end of the Cold War in 1989. At the same time, as the threat and incidence of state-on-state war receded, along with its associated conventional force strategies, structures and doctrine, governments were increasingly calling upon their armed forces to carry out missions that they were not trained and equipped for. These tasks included peace support, state-building, humanitarian aid, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, all of which engendered a plethora of arguments pointing to a new paradigm of war.